Streak-backed Oriole (Icterus pustulatus) - HBW 16, p. 763

Taxonomy: Ps.[arocolius] pustulatus Wagler, 1829, Mexico.
DNA data indicate that present species is sister to I. bullockii. Races often divided into three groups, “pustulatus group” (nominate race and microstictus) in N of range, single-species “graysonii group” on Tres Marias Is (off WC Mexico) and “sclateri group” (formosus, maximus, alticola, sclateri and pustuloides) in S of range. Groups sometimes thought to represent three distinct species, but mitochondrial-DNA divergence among mainland races slight; on other hand, insular graysonii, isolated for longer time, may warrant treatment as a full species, but scant information available on its behaviour and breeding biology. In Mexico, birds from S Sinaloa S to S Nayarit sometimes placed in separate race yaegeri, those from SW Jalisco S to S Guerrero in dickermani, and birds in interior C & S Mexico in interior, but diagnostic characters of these uncertain. Other proposed races are flammulatus (described from Monte Redondo, in Honduras), subsumed in alticola, and connectens (interior El Salvador), which is intermediate between alticola and sclateri and is merged with latter. Eight subspecies currently recognized.